Promotional Partnerships
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Establishing a live local game broadcast was a big project under my microscope when I joined the devils as the previous AHL teams in Binghamton had live games showcased on television, but it had yet to be done with the Devils during their first 3 seasons.
After setting up our initial trade deal for the season's advertising, I circled back with our partners at WICZ (Fox and My8) to establish a live local broadcast, with Wednesday Night Hockey being the end result of our meetings. We would broadcast once a month and receive 15 commercials each game to use for ourselves or to help bring in additional sponsorship. They would receive a sizable jump in Wednesday Night viewership and better advertising premiums.
I would be in charge of coordinating the :30 second commercials to run two weeks leading up to the event, the pregame and intermission pre-records, color and play by play announcing, and the live breakdowns in between periods. I would work with our video producer to ensure our feed and the overall show was ready and polished.
Some would argue that a live broadcast takes away from local ticket sales. My response to that is a simple question. What if all sports teams never showed live TV games in fear of cannibalizing ticket sales? I believe the short and long term effects of showcasing current promotions and the overall exposure of a professional quality show vastly exceeds the benefits of a few missed tickets on a Wednesday night, typically a lower attended game anyways.
Another big initiative of mine after taking the job was to take advantage of the large student body at our doorstep. There had been jabs taken to bring in students before, but not a whole cohesive campaign stretching the school year.
As apart of our overall college student marketing campaign, I set up a partnership with Binghamton University. We would advertise BU on our dasherboards. In return, they would allow us to set up in their busy Student Union on select Friday's and to be featured on their "Bearcat Bargain" email blast that was sent out to all students. Getting our brand physically in front of the students eyes with personable brand ambassadors was crucial as many of the students were new to Binghamton and did not know about our team or the league we play in. The Bearcat Bargain email was a huge success with a 50% open rate (roughly 8500 opens each email), and hundreds of tickets sold shortly following the email.
